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The endless dilemma soft top vs. hard top

Young04

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Don't get the hard top if you're looking at the 2018 JL. At least if you like driving with the front panels off. The new design has the back Freedom panel extending in front of the sound bar with no trim on the edges, and that fiberglass edge is sharp as hell. It sliced into my husband's hand so deep that it severed an artery and a nerve. The new 2019 model put plastic trim covering the sharp edge, but the 2018 JL doesn't have it. I'm serious, I rue the day we got that thing.
Please post pics. I have an 18 and don't know what you're referring to.
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Kluk Ztopolovky

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I used to love the soft top on my 2018 JL. It was quiet, solid, and extremely easy to go topless back and forth. The beauty of it was for road trips, I absolutely hate driving on southern California freeways with a topless jeep, the noise is disturbing. With a soft top you can drive on the freeway with top on and good music :rock:, then once you get out of the freeway pull over and in 1 minute you are topless. We did it when we went to Yosemite last year. Top on for the drive, and top off during our vacation, was amazing.

I couldn't find a soft top for my 2019 JL, they are just very hard to find on 2DR jeeps around LA. So I went hard top with headliner. I really like it, and it is even quieter. But am I ever gonna go topless on a Roadtrip? not gonna happen.... The hardtop is actually very easy to remove, it only takes 5 mins or so, but you either go top on or topless, there's no back and forth switching.

I looked into buying a soft top to have the option but the best top doesn't look that great to be honest, as it can't even go full topless like the mopar soft top. I also watched the installation video and it looked very annoying with brackets and a bunch of things that would take like 2 hrs to install, so if I wanted to go back to hard top I would have to go through the same painful process.

This really boils it down to buying a mopar soft top, it is expensive but might be worth it. Can you have the mopar soft-top brackets installed while with the hard top on? so if I wanna go with a soft top for a trip all I have to do is take the hard top on, leave it in the garage and put the soft top windows on? Somewhere in the jeep manual it says that "having both tops installed is a safety concern and it is not advised", I am not sure if this includes simply having the sliding brackets installed, not the entire thing.
living in L.A. I think I would go for the soft top but living in a snowy place I would pick the hard top
 

krissy

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Please post pics. I have an 18 and don't know what you're referring to.
Sure. Here’s a comparison. It isn’t clear enough to show the edge, but it shows the piece I’m referring to. The top is the 18, the bottom is the 19. They added trim covering the edges of the freedom top on the 19, but on the 18 that edge is raw. It probably would not be a problem unless you like driving with just the front 2 panels off. If so, seriously watch your hand lifting it up for any reason. This happened literally while he was driving it home from the dealership, and all he did was reach his hand up because the wind was blowing his hat around. He had to have surgery and is in rehab trying to regain use of that hand. Obviously it wouldn’t really occur to somebody that they can’t reach their hand up in their own car. I feel so bad for him.

30E94214-218D-4773-8AA1-0D14041C4390.jpeg
 

dsgrey

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So quick question about the soft top, do you get a lot of flutter with the top up and the doors on but the windows down? I'm going to be ordering in about 2 weeks and still stuck on deciding between the two. I had a JK with a Trektop and loved it but I rarely had door on it and used it more as a bikini. Now I'm going to have 2 car seats in the back andthe doors and top will be on and closed but after dropping them at their daycare, I'm going to want to at least have the windows down.
At highway speeds doing 70mph, oh yes. In town is okay. But if I'm going to be driving around with the windows down then I'll drop the top or at least pull the top's windows and run safari mode.
 

BlueCJ7

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Can the side windows be removed on the hard top? Thought I saw a pic of that.
 

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I love having the dual top group. I love that I basically get a "new" car every 6 months when I swap the tops. And the things that annoy me in the soft top (no rear defrost/wiper, PITA to put stuff in the trunk) are solved with the HT.
I have the dual top group too and feel the exact same way!
 

Patsloft

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I used to love the soft top on my 2018 JL. It was quiet, solid, and extremely easy to go topless back and forth. The beauty of it was for road trips, I absolutely hate driving on southern California freeways with a topless jeep, the noise is disturbing. With a soft top you can drive on the freeway with top on and good music :rock:, then once you get out of the freeway pull over and in 1 minute you are topless. We did it when we went to Yosemite last year. Top on for the drive, and top off during our vacation, was amazing.

I couldn't find a soft top for my 2019 JL, they are just very hard to find on 2DR jeeps around LA. So I went hard top with headliner. I really like it, and it is even quieter. But am I ever gonna go topless on a Roadtrip? not gonna happen.... The hardtop is actually very easy to remove, it only takes 5 mins or so, but you either go top on or topless, there's no back and forth switching.

I looked into buying a soft top to have the option but the best top doesn't look that great to be honest, as it can't even go full topless like the mopar soft top. I also watched the installation video and it looked very annoying with brackets and a bunch of things that would take like 2 hrs to install, so if I wanted to go back to hard top I would have to go through the same painful process.

This really boils it down to buying a mopar soft top, it is expensive but might be worth it. Can you have the mopar soft-top brackets installed while with the hard top on? so if I wanna go with a soft top for a trip all I have to do is take the hard top on, leave it in the garage and put the soft top windows on? Somewhere in the jeep manual it says that "having both tops installed is a safety concern and it is not advised", I am not sure if this includes simply having the sliding brackets installed, not the entire thing.
There is always someone selling their soft top. My 2019 JLUR came with a hard top but thru our local Jeep club someone was selling one that was 2 months old I bought it and it’s been on my Jeep since Father’s Day I love it
 

pstruzzi

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The answer could be the new one touch sky top which I just got
Awesome = quick and its Quiet!!!
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